


SAeon

by Scedasticity



Series: Crossover Sburb Sessions [1]
Category: D.Gray-man, Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe - SBURB Fusion, Gen, also i rescued lavi because dammit someone needs to
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-21
Updated: 2017-02-19
Packaged: 2018-09-19 01:51:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 5,768
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9412403
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Scedasticity/pseuds/Scedasticity
Summary: Mage of Hope: Rise Up





	1. Rise up

**Author's Note:**

> This obviously occurs in the middle of a fairly massive AU I will almost certainly not be writing, but I will add a second chapter with some more notes on it.

**== > BE THE SEER OF HEART**

_You prefer not to think about the Heart part, please!_

After all, a Bookman needs no heart, and you are the Bookman apprentice.

…Or possibly the Bookman. That part is a little… unclear. Are sprites alive? Is the Bookman required to be human? Well, the old panda seemed pretty much himself — just with an amorphous tail instead of legs and mouse ears (the mouse ears only serving to make him look even more panda-like) — and refused to provide even as much input as the mousesprite had earlier, instead taking off to observe the Battlefield, so you're going to go with he's the Bookman, you're the Bookman apprentice. Who has been unwillingly recruited to be a major participant and hero of fucking _Heart_.

Or if what the Prospitians tell your dreamself is true, the fact you _have_ a dreamself means you always were a hero of Heart. Maybe that's why you're such a failure as a Bookman.

Maybe the old man will recruit some Prospitian to replace you. A lot of them have an extreme fatalism that might make good Bookmen.

But you can't think about that now. You're here because you were told something really historic was going to happen, and while it's quite possibly a trap it _probably_ isn't a trap for you. 

…Unless the Fourteenth has decided it's your turn to be forcibly god-tiered. But in that case he'd probably just have ambushed you on the Land of Glyphs and Smoke, where your Quest Bed is handy, or wanted to meet on Prospit. Derse's moon just isn't the most convenient location.

You hop off the transportalizer, and almost run into Kanda; he elbows you back out of the way, and you avoid running into a pillar.

You give Kanda a nice big Lavi-grin. "Yuu! I see you found some normal pants!"

**== > PRINCE OF BLOOD: EXPLAIN HOW YOU GOT NORMAL PANTS**

No.

**== > PRINCE OF BLOOD: CHANGE BACK TO YOUR DEFAULT GOD TIER PANTS TO SHOW HOW IT'S DONE**

Even more no.

**== > PRINCE OF BLOOD: SMACK THE STUPID RABBIT**

Tempting, but Derse is enemy territory even for Derse dreamers, you're expecting another enemy to show up soon, and the stupid rabbit is an ally, so no.

**== > PRINCE OF BLOOD: EXPLAIN WHY YOU'RE HERE**

All right, that's reasonable.

"The Fourteenth claimed he was going to show up here," you say. "Bastard's been avoiding me." 

"I bet he has," Lavi mutters. "Isn't he still dragging Link around most of the time?"

"Tch. He's no help." Still trying to _support the Fourteenth_ even when the world has gone crazy — when the world is very possibly _destroyed_ , and all that's left is eight exorcists, four Noah, whatever Order personnel Lenalee and Miranda have hidden away in their Lands, and probably some more Noah in Road's private world.

(You're 95% sure Leverrier is not in with Lenalee's Science Division refugees. She'd be showing the stress. He might be in Miranda's modified, mutated Time Out.)

Lavi scratches the back of his head. "So… what are you going to do when he gets here?"

"Tell him to get out of the beansprout, what else, stupid rabbit," you snap. It's a fair question, though, if he was expecting you to be doing something that might actually work. "Follow him." There's nothing else you _can_ do, unless abducting the CROW would make an actual difference…

Killing's out, even if you weren't still holding out hope of recovering Allen. Wisely shot him point-blank in the head and he came back in minutes. Funny; you would have thought any Noah would automatically rate a Just. And you _are_ still holding out hope — after all, the damned game seems to think Allen is supposed to be a player, so he can't be gone forever.

The still air (no weather on Derse or its moon) abruptly becomes a stiff breeze, there's a streak of bright blue overhead, and then Lenalee drops down to hover beside you, a few inches off the ground.

**== > BE THE MAID OF BREATH**

Unlike Kanda (or Link, or Timothy, or poor Miranda), you did not get ambush-murdered into God Tier. You did it yourself, after consultation with your Denizen. It was the price for creating a refuge to keep your brother and the others _safe_ until you can win this terrible game.

You are always going to regret dying in front of your brother — you told him what you were doing beforehand, that you'd be fine, but you're not sure he believed you and he _can't_ see you now that the refuge is sealed. You do not regret ascending. You can do everything you could do before and it's _natural_ and _doesn't hurt_.

You can also listen in on things happening out of your normal earshot, but you're avoiding mentioning that to most people. Kanda and Lavi are exceptions, so you go ahead and respond to what they were saying before you arrived.

"He told _me_ to meet him here if I wanted to talk to Allen-kun."

Lavi perks up a bit. "Really?" He deflates almost immediately. "Did he say anything about Allen talking back?"

That didn't occur to you, and no, he didn't. "Well… even just knowing Allen-kun could hear what we're saying would be something!"

"True."

Kanda just _tch_ s. "Why aren't you god tier yet, stupid rabbit? You might be able to _see_ the beansprout's _heart_ and tell these things without having to take the Fourteenth's word for it."

Lavi winces. You don't take a side, because you know how hard Lavi is taking the "heart" thing to begin with, but also Kanda has a point.

Actually… "I wonder if that's why he hasn't… god-tiered you yet."

"No, I haven't 'god-tiered' him because unlike _some_ of you, _Kanda_ , he's actually making productive use of his dreamself."

You didn't hear a thing. How does that rotten bastard always _do_ this?

**== > BE THE ROGUE OF DOOM**

You hang back as the Fourteenth strolls casually up to the three exorcists. Kanda and Lavi try to close ranks in front of Lenalee, but she just lofts up over Lavi's head and shoves him to the back — a reminder, _one of us isn't god tier and it isn't me_ , you think.

She doesn't look at you. Lavi does, Bookman-unreadable; Kanda does, with contempt. You want to shout that now more than ever it's critical to follow the Fourteenth, because he seems to know more about this infernal game than anyone else with the _possible_ exception of Road Kamelot, and maybe if you work with him _some_ of you might get out alive. _Someone_ besides him and possibly Road Kamelot.

You don't, because they'd just say _but Allen_ , and you don't have any retort to that. God knows you hear it from yourself often enough.

"Well," Lenalee says after a moment, "you're here, which is what you told Kanda. What about talking to Allen?"

"And showing Bookman Junior something historic," he says. You can't see his face from behind, but you can hear the smile in his voice. "Follow me, everyone."

You do.

You descend, down a staircase, and into a basement, and then into an abyss. Lavi has to be carried — you and Lenalee each grab an arm.

"Should've sent my dreamself," he says. "So, Link! How've you been? Eating all right?"

You flinch internally, and wonder if that question was meant to remind you of Allen. Probably not as much as it actually does. Whatever the consorts of the Land of Knives and Chordophones are, they aren't friendly to visitors, and your churchmice in the Land of Dungeons and Sanctuaries are very hospitable but the Fourteenth hasn't been back there since killing you on your Quest Bed (has anyone moved your body?). So most of the rest and food you've gotten lately has been in the gambling parlors in the Land of Cards and Moonlight, which is _meant to be Allen Walker's Land_.

"I'm… fine."

**== > SEER OF HEART: PERSIST**

"Run into any Noah lately?" you try.

"Just Road. She stole the Queen's ring again." With his free hand, Link tugs at the bandana-with-eyeholes hanging loose around his neck. "How is Miss Miranda? I knew she was… very distressed—"

"Uh, think she was doing better until she ran into Krory and he almost had heart failure," you say. "And now she's locked herself in her tower and says she won't come out until she can change her outfit." Because it was _Miranda_ , you didn't bat an eye or make a single comment on _oh my god so much leg_ , but honestly, you can't really blame Krory for panicking.

"I've told her she can tear off the cape and use it as a wrap skirt," Lenalee says. "But hopefully she'll get it soon."

"You know, speaking of modifying god tier outfits—"

"Please don't ask," Link whispers. "I don't _know_ why he doesn't change it."

**== > BARD OF TIME: EXPLAIN WHY YOU DON'T GET RID OF THE CODPIECE**

Pffft, you don't have to explain yourself to them.

**== > BARD OF TIME: SHOWTIME**

"We're here," you announce, floating to a stop above the sacrificial slabs, then dropping down to stand on the Time symbol. The three Prospit dreamers all end up standing beside the Second Exorcist on his, looking around nervously (the girl and your semi-faithful follower) or curiously (the Bookman apprentice) or in dawning recollection (the Second Exorcist).

"This is where I—" he starts, but you interrupt.

"Got a coin, Bookman apprentice?" He's the only one in his original clothing, so he's the best bet. (You brought one yourself just in case.) He shrugs, and pulls one out. "Give it to the CROW. Kanda, heads or tails?"

Silence.

"Tails," the girl says. Good enough.

"Now throw me the coin, CROW."

You catch it.

You look at it.

Piano music echoes, and two of you are standing here. After a brief scuffle, one of you sighs, and leaps over to the Hope slab.

You kill yourself. Under the circumstances, it's Heroic. 

So Allen Walker's body dies there on the Sacrificial Slab of the Hero of Hope, and the game does what it wants to do.

**== > MAGE OF HOPE: RISE UP**

Your name is ALLEN WALKER (because you choose it to be), and you don't know where you are, or why it's so purple everywhere, or how you're floating, or where this odd pale yellow outfit came from, or how it is the Fourteenth is standing across from you grinning out of your face in an even more unusual outfit, or why Kanda and Link and Lenalee are also curiously dressed, or since when you were anywhere _near_ Lenalee or Lavi, or—

Basically you don't have any idea at all what's going on, except that you're in control of yourself and your friends are here and leaping at you for hugs, and just for now that's enough.


	2. Notes

The whole thing is Nea’s doing somehow. I’m not sure how exactly, but he sets it up and drags people into it. He probably dangles “quick way to end the war! no more fighting [for certain extremely restricted definitions of fighting]!” in front of both sides, didn’t give anybody the full story, and then sat back and waited for them to bite.

Nea is the  **Bard of Time** , a Derse dreamer, and his planet is the **Land of Knives and Chordophones**. (LOKAC is inhabited by hard-to-see, sharp-edged consorts who don’t seem to have a name.) He seems to be god tier from pretty much Day 1 and nobody quite knows how. May have played the game before? Is not very responsive to accusations that he tricked people into playing.

Theoretically, either the body Nea is in control of or the body Allen is in control of of should be doomed. No one knows which one is doomed, probably including Nea. Allen insists it doesn’t matter, it’s not like being doomed would be different for him. Besides, doomed or not, he got the much better end of the sprite bargain: Allen has Timcanpysprite, Nea has Crossprite RUN FOR YOUR SANITY.

Allen is **Mage of Hope** , Derse dreamer, and his planet is the **Land of Cards and Moonlight.**  He’s very popular not only with his consorts (card-playing snakes, even though he cheats them) but with the Dersites. Jack Noir started trying to have him assassinated within a few hours of his becoming active on Derse, that’s how much trouble he is, but NO LUCK. Allen accumulates grist at a frankly alarming rate. He does, however, have some problems with his eye ~~– it’s not happy about the total lack of akuma in the Medium.~~ On second thought, I think Timothy up and _prototyped_ with an akuma, so the eye is more _very confused_.

Kanda is **Prince of Blood** , Derse dreamer, **Land of Blades and Footpaths**. (LOBAF’s consorts are small dogs.) His sprite is prototyped with a stupid-looking taxidermied violin-playing frog he swiped out of an inn, and then again with a mounted fish, because Kanda has OPINIONS about weird unnatural resurrection of anything more complex than that. (He won’t find out for quite a while how helpful that was.) He goes through underlings like they’re tissue paper. He never woke up on Derse and was specifically disinterested in doing so -- he’s not interested in juggling multiple lives, thanks but fuck you. His room on Derse’s moon is, of course, completely overgrown with lotuses. Eventually Nea kidnapped his dreamself and killed it on a Sacrificial Slab, which both got Kanda to god tier and messily killed his non-dream self.

Miranda is **Page of Life** , Derse dreamer, **Land of Scars and Patchwork**  (consorts are flying squirrels). She is weirded out that she is not the one with Time powers – is it because she wasn’t good enough? did she do something wrong? how terrible does she have to be that the game thinks the Fourteenth is a better choice? (You don’t have to be terrible at all, honey, the game is just terrible. And Time=Death.) She is, however, deliriously happy that when she heals someone with her game powers, they stay healed. Her sprite isn’t anything special. She and Lenalee are the two who brought along some Order personnel at entry and are trying to keep them safe.

Krory is **Heir of Rage** , Derse dreamer, **Land of Caves and Cloudcover**. His planet’s consorts are little vampire bats, they insist he is a vampire, and it’s driving him batty. Then again, they LOVE him because he’s a vampire, so there’s that. Then again, he only vampires at akuma, and there aren’t any akuma in the Medium, so will they decide he’s fake and not like him anymore? And so on. ~~Like Allen, he’s experiencing lack-of-akuma-related discomfort.~~

Road is **Witch of Mind** , Derse dreamer, **Land of Games and Riddles**. No consorts to be found, worryingly. She also seems to have been god tier from very early on, nobody knows how.

…I think at any given time, there’s a 50% change that either Road or Nea has the Black Queen’s ring, which she of course will not wear because of the taxidermied violin-playing frog. They keep stealing it back and forth. They aren’t really doing anything with it besides stealing it.

Moving on to Prospit!

By process of elimination, the fourth Noah player is **Sylph of Light** , and Wisely fits that best of the options. Prospit dreamer, **Land of Streetlights and Drizzle** , consorts are highly sophisticated rats. Spends most of the time trying not to let one that he feels outclassed by the other Noah players and even some of the Exorcists. He’s close to the youngest person present! And one of the younger ones is Allen Walker, who should NOT count!

Timothy is **Knight of Void** , Prospit dreamer, **Land of Puppets and Abyss**. Everyone else finds his planet creepier than he does. His consorts are pheasants. He’s not the most adept player, but he may be the one finding it the least brain-breaky (except for Road, obviously).

Lavi is **Seer of Heart** , Prospit dreamer, **Land of Glyphs and Smoke**. Consorts are parrots. Since waking up on Prospit he’s spent enormous amounts of time buried in their libraries, absorbing the lore; it almost makes up for this being a war he is _defined_  as having to take part in. And hearing he was a hero of Heart was not a good moment, but he’s been rationalizing it as not really meaning feelings, anyway, it just means selves, and it means he sees people, and that’s perfectly fine! Nothing to worry about. ~~…Am I mean enough to give Lavi Bookmansprite? Ummm, that’s pretty damn mean, going to shelve that idea for now.~~ Apparently yes, yes I am.

Link is **Rogue of Doom** , Prospit dreamer, **Land of Dungeons and Sanctuaries** , consorts are very religious mice. He can’t figure out why he’s here. He’s not an exorcist. He’s not a Noah. _Why is he here_. (Because Nea, Link.) He’s not having much fun, but he is a very efficient player. And being able to support the Fourteenth without supporting Allen’s annihilation is a hefty consolation.

Lenalee is **Maid of Breath** , Prospit dreamer, **Land of Slope and Crevasse** , consorts are mountain goats. One might expect her to be a little disappointed that most of her Game powers she could already do with her Innocence, but she’s actually quite pleased that she can have all the things that brought her joy about her Innocence, _without using the Innocence_. Despite everything terrible about the game, the Windy Thing is clean and unbloody and painless and free. Lenalee entered from Komui’s office and brought a chunk of the Science Division with her, including Komui. Komui tried to volunteer to be her sprite but got locked in a closet for his trouble. Instead, Lenalee has Komulinsprite, to everyone else’s horror.

Aaaaaaaaand finally, the Earl/Adam/Mana(?) is **Thief of Space** , Prospit dreamer, **Land of Hot Water and Frogs**. You thought Road and Nea were giving the Black Queen headaches? The Earl is driving the White Queen to drink. Echidna has her work cut out for her.


	3. sprites

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> and a little more

**== > MAGE OF HOPE: ORIENT**

Lenalee leaves to take Lavi back to his "world", because Nea says he needs to show you something and refuses to "slow down for non-god-tiers" and Lenalee wants to avoid leaving "the refuge" unattended as much as she can. It's a shame; you think Lavi might have been better at the exposition than Kanda with occasional help from Link. They try, but you're left mainly wondering if Road has somehow snared everyone into her world after she downed laudanum cut with datura tea. Or else Nea decided to drink laudanum cut with datura tea in your body. Well, there's nothing you can do if that is the case, so best to play along. Flying is fun, anyway. You can see why Lenalee loves it so much. 

Transportalizers are worrying, though. Stupid Kanda shoves you onto the platform of the first one. Link offers unnecessary assistance on the other side. He's feeling very guilty about something. Probably to do with the Fourteenth. 

"Where's Johnny?" you ask eventually, as Nea leads you through a strange, windowless laboratory.

"LOSAC," Kanda says uninformatively. 

"The Land of Slope and Crevasse," Link elaborates. "Miss Lee's planet. A dozen or so Science Division members are being sheltered there."

…If this isn't real, Road or Nea got their hands on some really _high-quality_ laudanum and datura. "Komui's there?"

"Despite his best efforts," Kanda grates. "The fool tried to prototype himself."

"Prototype?" you repeat. "I think you left that out of your explanation, Bakanda—"

"Compared to underlings and agents, prototyping isn't important—"

Link suddenly goes _green_. "No, I think we need to tell him about prototyping _right now_."

"I can call that stupid frog, but I don't see how that's going to—"

" _The Fourteenth prototyped with Cross's bloody mask_!"

Kanda doesn't blanch, but he does look a little concerned. "And that…?"

" _Yes_. And the _other_ one is _Timcanpy_."

"How did he even get Master's mask?" you ask grumpily. " _I_ didn't have Master's mask."

"I have my ways," Nea says merrily.

"Stop looking just like me, it's creepy." Is there another one of you in there with him? There doesn't seem to be another Fourteenth in here with you, it's as quiet as it ever is in your head and all your reflections in the lab tanks are normal…

"Did you give him a doomed body?" Kanda demands suddenly. "If this isn't a stable time loop, one of you is doomed, right? Did you doom him?"

"Who knows?" Nea says. "Didn't keep track. More fun this way."

"That's really _fucking_ typical of you, Nea," says—

Cross is — is _hovering_ in the middle of the hall, he wasn't there a minute ago, he's tinted sort of rust-red all over, he has bird wings sticking out of his back, and he doesn't have any legs, just a vague red… blobby tail thing.

"Fucking shit," Kanda says.

"Close your mouth before you catch flies, stupid apprentice," says Cross… sort of Cross… no, that's definitely Cross. "About time, Nea, I've been telling you how to get him back for _days_."

"It's like you like him more than me," Nea sulks.

"It's like you're _no help at all_ with this damn _ectobiology_ which sprites are _not supposed to do_."

"You…" you say. "You… you… _stupid_ Master! You died!"

"Old news, stupid apprentice."

"My _Allen_!" something shrieks, and somehow you know it's Tim, even though the Tim that comes flying down the hall to tackle you has an extra floaty pink-tinged tail, an set of bird wings, and bird legs he seems to be using as arms to give you a claw-full hug. And a voice. "I missed you Allen!"

"You, too?" Nea demands.

Tim lets go of you and spins around to grab Nea. "I missed you too but this time you weren't gone as long! And I have lots I need to tell Allen about his quests!"

You close your eyes for a moment. "Could someone please finish that explanation now?"


	4. Knight of Void

**== > DAYS IN THE PAST (BUT NOT MANY) (NO MATTER WHAT IT FEELS LIKE)**

**== > (PAST) KNIGHT OF VOID: RISE UP**

You are Timothy Hearst, Knight of Void, and you are now floating above the battlefield, wearing a really cool dark blue outfit with a _cape_ , it's a little bit awesome.

The last thing you remember is controlling a akuma-ish underling to open up a sealed door where you expected to find more annoying _puzzles_ the game likes to throw at you when you'd rather be hunting underlings. Then there was a blur of bright red in the corner of your eye, and something hit you in the head. Hard.

Oh. Wait.

You must have died, and then resurrected in god tier, like the stupid CROW did. Wait. Red. The _stupid_ Fourteenth must have killed you to god tier, too.

"You'd think the bastard could have at least asked," you mutter. Ugh.

Everyone paying any attention saw the CROW's ascension reflected in Skaia. Chances are someone will show up before too long. Hopefully it won't be the Fourteenth—

"There you are, little boy."

Oh, shit. You turn around. " _Why the fuck did you do that?_ " you bellow.

"You're too young for that, little boy, you sound like a screech owl." The Fourteenth smiles, a lazy, sharp-edged expression that does not belong on Allen's face. "And you should be thanking me."

"Fuck off."

"You see, traditionally speaking, the Knight is supposed to assist the Space player with frog-breeding, and even Wisely admits the Earl isn't doing too well on his own." The Fourteenth's lip curls in derision. "If I could have picked the Space player, I would have gone for… Oh, I don't know. Maybe the CROW. Or Road would have been interesting."

You glower, wishing there were some underlings around to make attack him.

"Frog-breeding is essential to winning the game, so you go… see if you can use your Void powers and your tiny little brain to help with that. Conditional immortality should come in handy for that. Just don't do anything too heroic!"

**== > PRESENT KNIGHT OF VOID: RISE UP (AGAIN)**

You resurrect. Again. 

You're mostly sure that if you attacked the Earl and he killed you, that would be heroic. But him randomly killing you while you're attempting to help him with frog-breeding is evidently not a Heroic death, so you're good. 

Annoyed, but good. Alive. As alive as you were before, at least. This game is so weird.

You _should_ be able to avoid getting killed with your amazing Void powers. You're still working out the details on those. 

"Sorry about that one," Wisely says, _way_ too close. Your eyes snap and you reflexively try to take control of the person who snuck up on you. Just like every other time it's happened with a Noah, all you've gotten for your trouble is an instant splitting headache. "Hey, I thought we agreed, good idea all around for you to stay out of my head."

"I didn't mean to, you just — startled me, is all." You get up and brush off your god tier clothes, even though the process of revival always gets them good as new. "He didn't throw the frogs I brought in the boiling springs, did he?"

"Not… all of them?"

_Uuuugghhhhhh_. It's not like you really mind chasing frogs, or even playing gofer for the Space player. It's just that the Space player _is the Earl_ , even if he doesn't look as weird as he usually does, and he keeps killing you and then forgetting he's done it. 

At least the game seems to agree that you should be helping with frogs, and is rewarding you accordingly. Wisely isn't doing his own quests at all, just — trying to babysit the Earl through his. He also seems to not be sleeping.

Three or four times the Fourteenth has shown up, apparently mostly to taunt the Earl by talking about how great he is at this awful game. The Earl always cries and tries to hug him; the Fourteenth always freezes time and vanishes. Road Kamelot showed up once and cheered the Earl up a bit, but it didn't last.

_Your_ friends check up on you lots! Usually Lenalee, but sometimes Miranda or Lavi or even Kanda. Kanda is still really grumpy — and how messily he went god tier (ew) can't have helped. (But you like Kanda more than you ever did before, because he believed in Allen enough that he just went to go and help him.) They don't always visit in person, though — everyone is afraid too many exorcists on LOHWAF might make the Earl even crazier than he is now, and no one wants _that_.

Which is why you're surprised when Lenalee drops out of the sky. "Need to borrow you for a minute, Timothy!" She scoops you up and is back into the sky before Wisely can say anything.

"Leggo of me!" you protest. "I can fly, too, you know!"

"But not as fast!" She still slows and lets you go to hover after thirty seconds' fast flight from either of the Noah. "I have good news!"


	5. someone please save the seer of heart

**== > WEEKS IN THE PAST (BUT NOT MANY) **

**== > SEER OF HEART: DREAM**

You've just managed to drift off despite the pain when someone tackles you off a soft chair onto a smooth floor.  "Shhh!" Lenalee hisses. "The Earl's coming by!"

This is either an unusually bizarre hallucination or an unusually pleasant dream — so far — so you shush. And open your eye — everything is yellow. Even Lenalee is wearing yellow, a long yellow nightdress with a crescent moon symbol on the front, slit up one side for mobility. In fact, you're wearing yellow, too. Yellow pajamas. Yellow _clean_ pajamas. So you're not complaining. It's a nice dream.

…Apart from the weird tuneless humming that you guess must be the Earl. You stay very quiet. Although you might take the Earl over Sheril or Fiidora.

The humming fades into the distance. Lenalee sits up. "He never seems to pay much attention to anything but the Fourteenth, but I can't not be wary," she says. 

You just nod, and look around the room. It looks… disconcertingly like the room you're really in. Just everything is white and gold, and clean and airy, and there are windows. Which is probably how Lenalee got in? The door is bolted, on this side. Which is another big difference. 

"Has anyone told you what's going on?" Lenalee asks. 

Does something have to be going on? "If you don't mind, Lenalady, I think I could just… stay here on the floor for awhile, hey? It's a nice floor. Good dream."

"…So no one's told you what's going on." She makes a face. "I'm not sure where to begin… I guess with that… _awful_ Fourteenth."

Oh, Allen. "What's he doing now?"

"He's been promising a quick end to the Holy War if people play along with him… play this strange _game_ along with him. He gave Leverrier a list of people who would be required to play, and Leverrier just — agreed to it! None of us could believe it…"

You're still not at all convinced this isn't a dream, so you only half-listen to the explanation, just focusing on Lenalee's voice, mostly. After a while you wake up back in _the room_ , and you aren't surprised, but maybe a tiny bit disappointed.

You don't get to sleep again for a while after that. Maybe hours, maybe days — everything tends to run together.

When you do sleep, finally, you find yourself back in the yellow room. No Lenalee this time, sadly. You think about just lying on the floor not getting kicked for a while, but since you _can_ stand and walk, now, it seems a bit of a shame not to get out of _the room_ , even a yellow version of it.

There are people around, of a sort. They're happy to talk to you and eager to answer any questions, though the answers don't always make much sense.

They're in the middle of a war, because of course they are. You couldn't even imagine up a weird dreamworld filled with chalk-white near-featureless people without a war going on. And they tell you weird stories about yourself.

You don't mind visiting, though. Even if you do sometimes have to hide from the Earl.

**== > SEER OF HEART: WAKE**

You're already awake, in _the room_ , drooling blood down your front, when a weird fancy door appears out of nowhere. Your mind is so fuzzy you've barely identified it as one of Road's doors before she saunters through.

Sheril makes an incomprehensible exclamation, and lifts her off the floor in a hug. " _Road_! You're _all right_!"

He also releases his grip on you and you stop listening, collapse back into the chair, and try to breathe. It's hard, and it hurts. You want to pass out again. The White Queen had been telling you some fascinating stuff on the history of Carapacians living on the Battlefield and how they would always have been there as soon as the field evolved.

Then Sheril lifts you out of the chair and drops you on your hands and knees on the filthy floor. The pain barely registers anymore.

Then you start vomiting — not just bile, for a change, but _actual parasites_. You close your eyes, but you can still _feel_ them coming up and out. It only makes you vomit more. It seems to go on forever. When it finally stops, your throat is burning, your mouth feels like something died in it several weeks ago, you're soaked with sweat, your pants for breath are smooth, and your head is… very nearly clear.

"Thank you, Fiidora," Road says brightly. "You can go now." She indicates her door, still floating in the air. "Now Bookman Junior, you can either go next door and clean up, or Sheril will _help_ you clean up."

You don't want _that_. "Gramps…?"

"Go," he says.

You manage to stumble as far as the door, and then support yourself on the wall to the bathroom which is indeed next door. There's a shower. You turn it on, uncaring of the temperature, and step in with all your clothes on, even your boots.

"That's not very useful, Junior," Tyki Mikk says from the doorway. "You're supposed to strip for a shower. There are even clean clothes." He tosses a bundle of cloth onto the floor just outside the shower. "You've probably got ten minutes before she gets impatient."

Ten minutes is not enough time to get really clean after the month — months — you've had. But you clean up as best you can and put on the new clothes, which… fit well enough, and don't look like Noah clothing — just ordinary workman's clothes. You wonder where they came from. It hasn't quite been ten minutes, so you rinse your mouth out at the sink and drink some water, then wash and wring out your eyepatch as best you can. Then, threat of Sheril in mind, you trudge back to _the room_. You can't quite make yourself go in, though.

Road grins, all teeth. "Very good. Tyki, you should go." She points to her door. "As for you, Bookman Junior…" A black Ark Gate opens. "Through here."

It turns out you can make yourself enter _the room_ with the intention of leaving immediately. You stumble through nearly at a run. The gate opens on… some sort of attic, maybe? There are some large, chunky pieces of equipment that looks like it could belong to the Science Division, and a screen-monitor on a metal table. Beyond that, it's just… an attic. There's a dead mouse in a trap in the corner.

Bookman follows you, with Road skipping after him. She smiles again. "Very good! Now, you're not at your best right now, so you can be the last _server player_ , which means you're going to _enter_ first, aren't you lucky."

This all sounds weirdly familiar… "What… this is the game? The game they talked about on Prospit? Prospit is real?"

"Prospit's _moon_ ," Road corrects. "But Prospit is real, too." Another toothy smile. "Go play on the computer, one of your exorcist friends will contact you shortly." She looks at Bookman — "Remember, five hours to decide!" And then she's gone, and the Ark Gate is gone, and—

Either this is a new mind game — they haven't done anything like this before — or you have to play an apocalyptic game, and — they've let you go?

They let you go.

Bookman doesn't stop you when you sink down to sit on the dusty floor and shake for a while.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is like 75% self-indulgent Lavi-rescue because there _isn't enough of it, dammit_.


End file.
